Lions, Suh set to heat up negotiations next week

Lions president Tom Lewand plans to meet with Ndamukong Suh's agent, Jimmy Sexton, at the NFL League Meetings next week

The NFL League Meetings are a time for NFL owners, front office personnel and coaches to spend four days handling a lot of the league’s business for the upcoming season.

Rules changes and proposals will be discussed, as well as a lot of other league business.

The four days in Orlando next week will also gives teams and players' agents an opportunity to meet face-to-face and talk contracts. In the case of Pro Bowl Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, Lions team president Tom Lewand said in an interview with WJR Wednesday morning that he expects to meet with Suh’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, in Orlando.

“(Suh’s) expressed his desire to stay here and we’ve expressed a desire to keep him,” Lewand reiterated to host Frank Beckmann. “He just got an agent 7 to 10 days ago.

“His agent is a guy by the name of Jimmy Sexton, who’s with one of the big agencies (CAA) in football. Works with the guys who represented Matthew Stafford and Peyton Manning and about 90 some odd other guys in the NFL. They are very well established and reputable guys and we have a good relationship with them. We’re going to get with them I think down in Orlando next week and we’ll have some conversations and we’ll see if we can put a deal together and I’m hopeful that we can.”

Suh holds a cap number of $22.4 million for the 2014 season and can void the option for 2015 after this season. While lowering the cap number is expected to be part of any new deal with Suh, more than that, the Lions' desire is to keep a dominant defensive player in town for the foreseeable future.

“I think Ndamukong is hopeful we can (get a deal done) and we’ll see where that takes us,” Lewand said of next week.

In the case of Stafford's extention last offseason, the Lions didn’t get a three-year, $53 million extension done with him until July.

No one really knows what the timing could be like in the negotiations with Suh, but expect them to start heating up next week.